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The Best of Africa 20XV Awards

This year Mishcon de Reya hosted the Best of Africa 20XV Awards - an evening to honour the philanthropic endeavours and achievements of African footballers based in the UK.

Attended by many current and former Premier League players and coaches from football clubs such as Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Liverpool, Manchester United, Norwich, Stoke City and Tottenham Hotspur, the event was part of Mishcon de Reya's ‘Africa Season’, a series of events celebrating the firm's investment and interest in Africa.

Award winners included Vincent Kompany of Manchester City FC for his involvement as International Ambassador with 'SOS Children's Villages', a charity that works in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a place where Vincent himself has family and heritage. His teammate Yaya Touré was honoured for his work as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme and is known for donating to those in need in Côte d'Ivoire and other countries in West Africa.

Mishcon de Reya has been advising clients with interests in Africa for many years; the continent is increasingly viewed as an exciting place to do business.

Transcript

Best of Africa 20XV

Saul Sender
Partner, Mishcon de Reya

We came up with partnering with A Plus and Polaris and lots of other guys to host these awards, Best of Africa Awards which are really celebrating leadership and philanthropy and those African footballers who have really made it big over here and yet haven’t forgotten where they came from.

Justin Rigby
Polaris Media

We’ve had obviously Mrs Tori, Yanga’s wife has been to collect an award, we’ve had Sebastien Bassong, Louis Saha, Peter Wingate, Yannick Bolassie. We’ve had Chris Ewe the manager, Avram Grant the manager of Ghana and a host of other people.

Saul Sender
Partner, Mishcon de Reya

To celebrate our move to Africa House and all the really exciting Africa work we are doing we thought we would have something called the Africa season which is a series of events about our commitment and interest in Africa.

Leon Mann
Sports People’s Think Tank

Tonight is about celebrating African achievement, it’s about celebrating what footballers do off the pitch as well as on it.

Yannick Bolassie
Crystal Palace F.C.

I just try to be me and you know if the kids want to follow then they can follow but I try to lead by example by what I do.

Eniola Aluka
Chelsea F.C.

Being a female in sport and someone that I suppose is a role model to young girls and really passionate about affecting females across all sports not just football.

Odion Ighalo
Watford F.C.

So when I go back home I want to try to win not because I have much but because I know where I was then. That’s why I am trying to do my best and try to win.

Frances Nkwain
Founder of BoA and A+ Club

The Best of Africa is an initiative we put together with A+ with a view to celebrating some of the positive things about Africa.

Chris Hughton
Manager, Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.

We have a lot of African players playing in Premier League, playing in the Championship and I think tonight is an opportunity to honour the work that they do outside of football.

Leon Mann
Sports People’s Think Tank

These guys are doing great things in communities, great things back in Africa and you know the media probably don’t give it the attention it deserves at times so an event like this helps to do that.

Frances Nkwain
Founder of BoA and A+ Club

When we have opportunities where we are able to work with a house like Mishcon de Reya, that has an interest and a love and a passion for Africa, we are excited by such opportunities.

Leon Mann
Sports People’s Think Tank

Sports People’s Think Tank is incredibly happy to be part of tonight. We are all about leadership and we believe the people that we celebrate tonight, the people we encourage to go on and do things from tonight are part of our movement as well.